CEO of Springboard BIodiesel
Now as everyone knows the best way to avoid someone or something in your lobby, is to go on a trip. I chose China, where I spent a week spreading the Word – the Biodiesel Word – and I have to say that I found it refreshing to cast off the shackles of US bureaucratic malaise and replace them with enthusiastic Chinese support.
Visit Mark Roberts blog at Springboard Biodiesel.
The Chinese understand the value of biodiesel and support its development and proliferation. I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising, given that their economy is growing faster than any other and that they are projected to double their consumption of energy by 2020 with virtually all of that coming from “foreign sources”. Energy security is a big deal in China, and so biodiesel has a seat at the table as the government looks to create a total alternative energy portfolio.
I thought I’d share a few observations from my trip that started in Wuhon at the Oil Crops Research Institute and finished in Yingkou at the Liaoning Energy Institute. I think they provide an excellent reference set for supporting this vital global industry.
First of all, the Chinese government bought several small-scale biodiesel processing units from Springboard Biodiesel, so that they can begin to develop a strategy that allows their burgeoning diesel fleet to pollute less and use more indigenous fuel. In contrast, in the US, where we burn 60 billion gallons of diesel fuel annually (how does this compare), our government is neither exploring small scale production models, nor supporting active commercial scale plants. In fact, our legislators have killed every single bill to reinstitute the biodiesel tax credit for 6 months now, resulting in shuttered capacity, 12,000 job losses, technology leakage and a growing sense within the industry that our collective future may need to find succor elsewhere.
Springboard Biodiesel: View our Biodiesel Processor’s.
Next, the two Chinese government institutes with which we worked to set up our systems, had no less than 12 people dedicated to the project. They want this project to succeed because they know biodiesel works, and they know they can make it domestically, and they know that it will provide them a much-needed additional energy resource at a similar or lower price than they pay for diesel. (And they seemed happy, when I reminded them that biodiesel will meaningfully reduce their carbon footprint – not sure it was a top three priority, but appreciated nonetheless).
By the way, the Chinese government has mandated a 10x increase in the use of biodiesel by 2020. Compare that to Massachusett’s recent decision to annul its bioheat mandate (#18) to use a meagre 2% biodiesel blend. Don’t blame MA. They’re only reacting to the federal-level stall in pushing the industry forward; they’re not interested in picking up an unfair burdon, if no one else is.
The Chinese government has committed millions of dollars and millions of acres to alternative oil crop research, particularly Jatropha, an inedible weed that requires little in the way of farming resources and can produce over 200 gallons of oil per acre (versus soybean oil which is less than 50 gal/acre).
Upon my return, frustration – in the guise of another stalled Senate Bill – met me in the lobby, but I ignored it, and took comfort in the fact that we are competing globally with our local, small-scale, best in class product line.
